Maximizing the Use of Whites, Darks, and Neutrals in Your Paintings

Yesterday, I spent the afternoon preparing a white paint chart for the next online class that starts Thursday, May 2nd. Color Luminosity with Neutrals, Darks, and Lights, is a 4-week class where all the lessons will focus on how to use grays, whites, and darks to support vibrant color passages and reinforce your artistic vision.

The class will have four weekly lessons plus an extra pre-class lesson about color mixing and the color wheel. Each week’s lesson investigates a specific concept and idea with an assignment designed to help the student apply these concepts to their own paintings.

Topics covered:

How glowing color is supported with partnering grays
How to get the most out of your darks
How to use different whites for subtle but powerful results
How to make color pulsate with simultaneous contrast.

http://www.elizabethfloyd.com/2013/04/17/maximizing-the-use-of-whites-darks-and-neutrals-in-your-paintings/

Warm and cool color temperatures
Combining darks with lights to create pattern

I created this class because in the past few years I have begun to realize how important it is to be comfortable with using neutrals along with lights and darks to strengthen the compositions of my paintings. Previously, I was all about high chroma compositions, that were sometimes so visually *charged* that some of the most beautiful color passages would be lost because of other not-so-important competing color passages in the same painting would take over. Once I began to incorporate larger passages of luminous grays, glowing lights and darks, the important color passages in my paintings really began to sing.

If this is something you want to explore, I hope you will join in with this class and begin incorporating this valuable information into your own paintings.